The Ministry of Home Affairs' division of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) to closely monitor banks, financial institutions and tech security companies to crack down on mule accounts to prevent frauds, financial cyber crimes and online payment scams using banking systems.
The banks and financial regulators have been asked to identify mule accounts and devise technologies to detect and shut down the accounts in the system to prevent further financial frauds. “Top financial tech service providers have been tasked to deploy advanced solutions at major banks backend to predict the fraudulent behaviour of customers and stop transactions through those accounts,” confirmed a top MHA official.
The MHA has estimated a staggering 500,000 mule accounts in Indian banking systems with mere 200-300 mule accounts identified accurately using advanced analytical tools. “The mule accounts operated by fraudster are used to transfer funds defrauded from victims accounts to further multiple accounts and get encashed or converted into cryptocurrency,” explained another cyber crime officer. The I4C is facilitating blocking of SIM cards, mobile devices and mule accounts used by cyber fraudsters.
The high powered committee set up by the MHA to tackle the spurt in transnational cyber crime originating from South East Asian regions of Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia headed by special secretary (internal security) has representatives from RBI,Department of Financial Services, Financial Intelligence Unit, Banks, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and fintech companies as members to deal with cyber financial frauds in real-time.
“The banks, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries and social media companies need to strengthen their backend to prevent cyber attacks and frauds and sanitise every accounts for suspicious activities,” added the cyber crime official.
The anti-cyber fraud agency Indian Cyber Coordination Centre (I4C) in collaboration with Microsoft blocked over 1,000 Skype accounts linked to intimidation, blackmail, extortion and ‘digital arrests’ of citizens by cyber criminals posing police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Narcotics Department, RBI or Enforcement Directorate.
